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MNFC Carentan 2019 Winner’s Report

Category: MNFC, Pigeon Racing 01.08.19

The first race of the season for the Midlands National Flying Club which took place from Carentan, France, was kindly sponsored by Bamfords Top Flight UK and total of 4442b were entered by 441 lofts which were liberated into a light north west wind at 7:45am. The convoyer reported that the pigeons cleared the area immediately and that the forecast for the channel showed good conditions with the winds around 8-11 mph.
The overall winner was Dean Cartmel of Stoullton in Worcestershire who had recently returned to his love of pigeon racing in 2016 after extensively renovating his new home three years ago. Known to his close friends as “Dixie” he decided to ask the local farmer if he would allow him to place a loft on a piece of grazing land to the rear of his small garden, to which he readily agreed, and a 24 foot loft was acquired from Tranter Lofts which is all that Dixie needed to continue his successes of previous years. He first raced pigeons as a lad in the 1980’s in Worcester but in 1995 a Fox got in his loft and killed them all. This led him to concentrate briefly in his Football and he played semi-professionally for a while. He began racing again with a small team, having won many races including the Van Robaeys Gold Ring in 2003 and in 2006 having won twenty six first prizes in club and federation, so he is not new to winning big with small numbers! Unfortunately in 2007, his father passed away and once again his pigeon racing career was put on hold.
In 2016, once his loft was on order and after an eight year break from racing, he decided to acquire his new stock from Peter Fox, after a very intresting visit to Syndicate Lofts. He knew then exactly which lines he would purchase, so at the next auction held at Doncaster Show, he bought a total of four summer bred youngsters and ten at his Blackpool auction. All of which Peter housed for him until his loft was ready the following January. He also went to a Koopman sale and bought two cocks, one of which Koopman himself said was the pick of the sale “how right he was” said Dixie, as it has gone on to breed many prize winners for himself and others. He also managed to retrieve some of his old bloodlines, so although he keeps a small stock loft, he is very happy with the quality of the pigeons he has.
He had decided to keep just a small number of racers comprising of 10 cocks and 10 hens, and breeding with his stock, just 20 young birds per year. But he has now realised how prolific the raptors have become in his absence, and wonders if that will be enough to compete these days. He races his old birds total widowhood with respective partners kept solely for the purpose of motivation, as he feels they should be waiting for the competing birds on return from the races. His hens are locked up all day and will defend their boxes like cocks, fighting with his hand just the same, but it is clear he has a close affinity with them as the small loft encourages them to be tame around him. He likes to get close to them and they do him too.
His winning hen, now called “Rosedene Russ” inspired by the of name of his cottage and ‘Russ’ after his brother, who sadly passed away at the young age of 52, was one of only five he entered into the race, and had come very well the week previous from a federation race, he was confident she would put in a top performance. He cannot put out a big team but he can definitely put out a quality one, and as we all know, it only takes one great pigeon on the day to win a big race. She is bred off a Peter Fox pair that of four youngsters taken from them that year, all four had taken prizes in the club as young birds. In the original youngsters acquired from Peter Fox, he found he had more cocks than hens so Peter kindly sent him five hens, on loan, to help him get started. He was astonished at this kind gesture, as they were all proven breeders and although Peter said “they will not all be Champions” he was confident he had set Dixie up to find one or two to match his ambitions and how right he was, with the Midlands National winning hen being sired by a son of “Amulet” from Van Dyck’s “Kannibaal” and Heremans Ceusters “Di Caprio” lines and “Sister Sphinx” from Rik & Jan Hermans. Her dam is from “Son Friendship” of Rik & Jan Hermans and “Stardust” from Dirk Van Dyck which is also a daughter of “Di Caprio” bred by Heremans Ceusters. All top middle distance bloodlines put together by Syndicate Lofts which have also been responsible for two other MNFC winners in the last four years, form this very same race, for Mr and Mrs Shaw and Tony Whitehouse plus the two years prior to that Foxy Lady, also 100% Syndicate Lofts bloodlines, won 2nd and 3rd open in the same race each year. Horses for courses comes to mind!
Last season he won five of the seven young bird races only sending a few birds each race as he wants to be competitive with just four or five birds each week. He pairs the cocks around the end of January and floats the eggs under feeders. The widowhood hens being paired three weeks later with a view to weaning off the youngsters before just before he and his partner goes on a pre season holiday in March. When Dixie Dean Cartmel started back up in 2016, he did so with the sole intention of winning the Midlands National and after only seven races with the club, he has managed to achieve his aim with a small team of high quality birds. He said that Peter Fox has been really good to him and he knew they would excel at races around seven to eight hours. He has a small team of excellent pigeons which he will compete in the Midlands Championship Club one week and the Midlands National Flying Club the next, and send a few to the RPRA One Loft each year, being 80th in the final 2018. Dixie also wins Gold Medal for 1st Open and the “Yearling Classic” which is incorporated in the race and sponsored by The Racing Pigeon and Belgica DeWeerd. All yearlings are entered free of charge with Open prize money of 1st £100, 2nd £50, 3rd £30, 4th £20 and 13 prizes of £10. Prize winning pigeons in the Yearling Classic are highlighted in the final result. The winner of the new iPigeon ETS system is Mr & Mrs E Corkett & Sons which is a £2 nomination and sponsored by John Murray Racing Pigeon Supplies.
Having taken over the role of Press Officer for the MNFC some two weeks after the first race, this section report is not how I would normally like it to be. Having said that it requires your participation to enable us as a club to publicise your results properly. From the Fougeres race onwards I shall be visiting and writing an in-depth loft report on the winner followed a week later by the section report. This should give all members who are in the top four of their section ample opportunity to send me the details via email at [email protected]. All through the sections in the Midlands National Flying Club some great performances were recorded. In the East North section T & P Douthwaite took the first three positions with their first bird being a two year old hen having her first National race and is bred from a Benny Steveninck crossed with a Willy Vrancken with her sire being one of their best racing cocks. Second to the loft was another yearling hen which is Quiniren crossed with Arien Verreckt from their number one stock cock which is grandsire to many winners up to combine level. Their third pigeon, taking third section, is a two year old hen of Benny Steveninck lines also having her first National race.
In the North section Simon Parkinson took the first two positions with his winning pigeon being a four year old cock flown on the widowhood system, and has won many prizes over the years including seven firsts. This season he has performed extremely well winning the two previous club races prior to his section victory. Both his parents were bred by Luc Van Mechelen from who he has had some fabulous birds over the years. His father has bred many top birds for Simon and is a son of the 5th Ace Pigeon middle Distance x daughter “Superchantill” paired to “Mother Steffi 2”, the number one breeding pair. His mother is a Gaby vandenabeele bird called “Roberta” she is a granddaughter of “Rudy” Gaby’s number one breeding pigeon. She is one of Simons top stock hens and has bred some top pigeons over the years right through to national level. M Robinson of Hatfield was third and Micky Betts of Scawsby came in fourth section. In the south west section in second and third was R & J Westwood brothers of Featherstone. This Cattrysse cross Soontjen bird had one channel race as a yearling in 2018 and scored a second club from Portland. His sire was bred by G Crosby of Shareshill and his Dam has always been in the stock loft, having been bred from the partners First open winner from Messac in 2010 with the Midlands Continental Club. Fourth section was R Stokes & Son of Farlow, also taking sixth open flying 220 miles. They are closely followed by Shaun McDonough of Pelsall who takes fifth section, seventh open. The dark hen that excelled from Carentan for Shaun already has first and second club, plus federation prizes to her name and is bred from his own family of Wildemeersh pigeons. Her Sire is bred from a full sister to ‘Coronation Joy’ who herself won first open MNFC from Fougeres with over eight thousand birds competing. This makes the dark hen a great granddaughter of his champion breeder ‘Magic Pie’.
In the South East section Mr & Mrs E Corkett & Sons were 1st Sect 2nd Open, their yearling Blue Chequer Gus Janssen hen whose parents were bred by Dean Bullock and Lofty from Ripon. She is a grand-daughter of “Olympia Thunderbolt” which was one of their top racing and breeding cocks. Raced consistently as a young bird she has had four races this season, including Guernsey in the UBI combine two weeks prior to this race. Glen said they would like to thank Deano and Lofty for letting them have the Gus Janssens, saying that they are already producing multiple Club and Fed Winners. They would also like to congratulate the winner of first National and all other section winners on their success from Carentan. Taking second South East section and fifth open is another Leighton Buzzard flyer, Arthur Staniford who sent six birds and clocked his two year old blue cock which has had positions and wins at club level but was facing his first time over the channel. He is bred from a pair of stock birds off of Matt Bispham of Blackpool. Taking third section, eighth open is Ron Fullbrook of Toddington. Many of you will remember Ron and his grandson Mason winning first and second in the Queen’s Jubilee race some seven years ago. Ron had two birds drop on the trap together and the bird he clocked first is bred down from the hen that was second Midlands National all those years ago. Ron said that he had four birds arrive very quickly and that his second, third and fourth were all bred by the Corkett family last year, one of which won the young bird combine. Fourth section goes to Mr and Mrs G Butts of Hitchin.
Mick Godfrey was first and second East South section with his first pigeon being a dark chequer cock of Janssen bloodlines. This pigeon won the section from Coutances as a young bird in 2017 and was thirty third open from over 3600b. To top a great day Mick also took the first five positions in his local club race from Poole. Mr and Mrs R Auker came third with
a Bricoux Mealy Cock a latebred hatched June 2017 from a pair of their own Bricoux stock birds. Being lightly trained in 2017 up to 20 miles, in 2018 he flew most club and federation races but did not go across the channel. At the start of 2019 he was paired up and is flown on the Natural system and had four club races up to 140 miles. Their birds are on open loft and out most of the day and they have a least two training tosses every week up to about 30 miles. He was sent to this race with 2 youngsters 6 days old these being his first ever youngsters, this was a very pleasing result from a pigeon on his first ever channel crossing.
Mick Godfrey also in fourth place. In the East Section Cawdron & Costello won first and second place with a two year old blue hen from a Gary Cox Hermans Ceuster crossed with a Premier stud Geerinckx. Their second bird, another two year old is a blue pied hen. Her breeding is Janssen cross Van Camp from Paul Wilson of Keelby stock. Third place was L Gilbert of Grantham with Jack Ramm in fourth.
First North West section was Paul Grayson of Fenton with M/M Hargreaves of Moss Gate in second place. Roger Sutton of Congleton was third All the first five pigeons in this strong section will be in the top twenty open result. Taking fourth section are Prince Brothers of Cheadle. They clocked two yearling hens which are raced on the roundabout system. The blue pied is a De Meyer cross Vandebrande and took a prize as a young bird from Carentan. She was reported as a baby on her first training toss and as Leon says, it shows that when this happens, they are not all bad. The blue hen has been consistent all season but yet to take a card and she is three quarters Rene Nauwelaert and one quarter Vandenabeele being inbred to the brothers good pied cock. In the South Centre section Mr & Mrs Jerry Wright took first place with their yearling Herman Ceuster cock having his first ever channel race. Second section is R Rouse of Coventry Third and fourth was D Aston of Sutton Coldfield followed by D & J Leitch of Cosby with a pigeon that topped the south Leicester Federation a couple of weeks ago. First and second North North section was Andy Gregson with a two year old roundabout hen out of John May’s Leo Hermans. Andy says this hen has won well on land but it is her first ever time over the channel. Their second bird is a three year old cock bred from their good friend Alfie Hawthorn. He has been a very consistent pigeon with two wins already to his credit. The couple sent twelve birds to Carentan and had nine back on the day, all of which Andy says were in excellent condition. Tom Jackson of Preston was third with a yearling cock and in fourth P & B Taylor follow close in fourth place. In the North Centre Kevin Thorpe was first and second with Leach Brothers third and fourth.
North East section Barry Baker from East Stoke was first section with his hen “MisFortune” a four year old hen bred by Joe Davies. Her dam was from the Queens Royal lofts when Joe purchased her from a charity sale. Her sire was bred from the European stud lofts of Hugo Batenburg. “MisFortune” seems to have broken her jinx with this win, her name is inspired by the fact that in 2017 she was 3rd section from Bordeaux but the paperwork went missing between the clock station and head office and in 2018 she would have been 2nd sect from Tarbes. However the ETS clock was stolen out of the wreckage of a car crash. She is in preparation for this years Pau International and this Carentan race was the first of the season for her. Prior to that she has had just three 60 mile single tosses. Barry is looking forward to testing her against Europe’s finest in two weeks time. Second is Mark Williamson of Ashborne with a two year old hen that won a third federation earlier this year and is a sister to last year’s first Section MNFC Vire. Being a daughter of his super stock cock ‘The Butler’s Son’ bred by Gaby Vandenabeele and ‘Chequer Vivian’, who is a brilliant stock hen bred by EJ & H Eijerkamp. ‘Chequer Vivian’ is a daughter of Eijerkamp’s famous breeder Throvald when paired to their outstanding racing and breeding hen ‘Olympic Vivian’. Turner & Wheatcroft of Worksop take third section with R & M Duffield of Eastwood fourth.
For the West Section first place went to Jon Parrott of Overton. Jon clocked his very consistent yearling Vandenabeele cross Soontjen hen which topped off an amazing weekend of racing due to winning his club race from Falaise too. Nairn & Brown of Kirkby were second with Peter Maorris in third. Fourth was Mills, Rice, Abbott and Duffy.
Any news or views to me Chris Sutton at [email protected] or 01530 242548 07792356330

Dean Cartmel 2
Dixie Dean Cartmel
Rosedine Russ Eye
Rosedine Russ Wing
Rosedene Hen 2
Rosedine Hens 3
Rosedine Loft
Rosedine Trapping 2
Rosedine Trapping
Rosedine Young Birds

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